Toronto blue bins will be sifted through to see who's putting in the wrong items

Dear resident: Don’t be surprised to see someone rummaging through your blue bin after it’s put out to the curb for collection.

And it won’t be the guy who usually goes down your street, rifling bins for bottles that can be returned for a deposit.

Typically, 26 per cent of what goes into Toronto blue bins is considered garbage, according to the city. (Jack Lakey)

The city is sending out inspectors to see exactly what people are putting in their blue bins and warning them that if it’s contaminated with materials that shouldn’t be in it, they could end paying a “cost recovery fee” to remove it.

Like everyone, we received a “Dear Resident” letter last week from Jim McKay, general manager of solid waste management, saying the wrong stuff is contaminating recyclables that earn cash for the city.

“When a resident sets out a blue bin that contains too many nonrecyclable items, the materials cannot be sorted and can ruin perfectly good recycling that must be sent to landfill,” McKay said.

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The letter said 52,000 tonnes of stuff that can’t be recycled was put into blue bins last year, of which the net cost to the city was about $10 million.

“In order to help offset these costs and reduce the amount of recycling ending up in landfill, the city may require a cost recovery payment from homeowners who set out contaminated recycling bins,” he said.

That sentence jumped off the page, suggesting the city would have to engage in wholesale snooping to identify offenders.

So we called up McKay, who confirmed that a crew of about half a dozen solid waste employees is peeking into blue bins to see what’s in them. But he stressed that the emphasis so far is on education, and that cost recovery fees — which sounds a lot like a fine — have yet to be levied.

“About 26 per cent of what we collect, by our definition, is garbage,” he said, noting that the cost of just one percentage point of contamination is upwards of $1 million.

“Based on the way our contract is structured, if we have a jump of just one (more) per cent, to 27 per cent, it will add $5 million to our costs,” he said, adding that the city’s immediate goal is the reduce contamination to below 25 per cent.

The right number is about 10 to 15 per cent contamination, he said, and “that’s a tonne of money that can be saved” by increasing education about what can or can’t go into blue bins.

The city has started a public awareness campaign about what can and can’t go into blue bins, McKay said, using advertising, customer engagement and social media to connect with people.

“Education is certainly a big part of this … but there are some segments of the population who just won’t participate,” he said.

When inspectors find contamination, they tag the bin and leave educational materials about what is and isn’t OK, McKay said, which doesn’t always have the desired effect.

“So we’ll start pushing those bins back and not collecting them. When we go back and check for compliance, we’re seeing really good result, but it’s early days.

“We’ve had some situations where we tag the bin, push it back and the resident will go out as soon the inspector is gone, rip the tag off, throw the tag into the bin and push it back out for collection.”

Scofflaw residents will eventually be assessed a cost-recovery fee of about $20, an estimate of what it would cost to remove contaminated material from the bin, he said, adding that so far, the fines haven’t started.

Anyone who wants to do recycling properly should consult the city’s online Waste Wizard or check their recycling calendar to see what goes where.

What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Send an email to jlakey@thestar.ca. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.